Connecticut western news., 1887-12-07
JACK AND JILL.


 dow of country drawing room; glori- ous Summers sunset was gliding tho topmost branches of the trees in the old garden with it's last rays, and the chimes in the village church-tower rang out eight o'clock. Their sound broke long silence which had reigned in the room, and the young man, fixing his eyes on bis girl companion, spoke hurridly.
 'T did not know it was so latel must be of, or shall miss my train to town, and my regiment at Portsmouth, and all my chances of getting on in the world. But by Heaven, I'll do even that, if you will only say to me 'Stayp" ''But I don't say Stay, Jack; I say Go, Go, and God bless youp'
 There was deep tenderness in her low voice which any man might have been proud to hear, but, because she would not grant him his wish, young Marriott found her harsh and cruel.
 "And what's the good of that, if you yourself won't bless me, Jill2 What else in the world do I care for but your"
 'Then go and do your duty, and prove yourself worthy of mc!'
 'But if you will not promise me that you will be mine1' he asked sadly. And Jill went on to answer him in her sweet est, firmest way.
 'I have told you, Jack, that, though will not promise now to be your wife, I will promise it to you in three years, or sooner, If you come home !; and, till then, you and I are both of us to be free. know my own heart we'll enough, and daresay you think you know yours, but how can you tell with whom you may fall in love while you are away7 You are only one-and- twenty now, and am almost the only girl you have ever known. How can you tell what the world may have to teach you and show you7"
 ''Oh, my darlingl No one else in it can ever be the same to me that you arep'
 "Well, then, if you think SO after three years, will be your proud wife. Surely, if we arc in earnest, we can be true to each other without any formal promise to bind usl And, if we cannot, then it will be ten times better for us never to have been engaged. Now, goodbye, Jack," she added, after a pause. 'As you say, if you stay longer, you will really be too late. Good bye"
 "You are so calm and quiet. An, Jill, if you cared as much as I dop' And he seized her hand and covered it with kisses.
 She was very calm, certainly, bot for all that, when ln another moment he was gone and there was no one to sec her emotion, she threw herself on the sofa, murmuring between her deep sobs ooh! my darling, my darling! And he thinks it is because 1 do not love him enough. Am I right to treat him soi Is it wise2"
 Was she rightl Was it wise At any rate she had sent him away from her. And as he left her that Summer evening, bright, splendid, perfect knight, whom any fair lady might well be proud of, she never saw him again.
 And yet it was because he was so splen. did that she had refused his pleadings Jack was the only child of the squire o the parish, General Marriott; and Jane Armstrong, once named Jill by Jack md afterward universally called so, was the eldest daughter of the rector. The rectory garden was bounded on two sides by the woods around the hall, and from their childhood, Jack and Jill had been accustomed to play together dur ing the holidays like brother and sister;
 When she was seventeen and he nine teen, he passed with credit into the CT gineers, and went up to Chatham tt study, and when he came back from hi first term there, the old relationship be tween the two was at an end, Q chang, in it being unavoidable, if sad. Jill wa shy and Jack oficiously polite; wearing his best clothes when he was likely t meet her, bringing her flowers from hi. fafAsrs conssrvatory and grapes iron